1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to devices for character input in computer-related systems. The invention concerns, more particularly, a character input device having at least one mode-altering key that associates specific keys of the character input device with various characters. The invention has application to various peripheral input devices for computers and gaming systems.
2. Description of Background Art
Game controllers are frequently used with gaming and computer systems, for example. Controllers are normally designed to be hand-held, and commonly include a wide variety of user interaction mechanisms such as thumbsticks, D-pads, and various depressible buttons. Due to progressions in video game systems and data transfer capability, some games permit the input of text and other characters. Such text input is commonly performed on a typical, full size keyboard due to the quantity and number of keys used for inputting text.
Attempts have been made to integrate push buttons corresponding to alphabetic keys onto a hand-held game controller. However, such attempts have been less than satisfactory, as the size, number, and/or configuration of the keys and/or the methods of using the keys have not provided a solution that permits for efficient entry of a large number of letters and other characters without drawbacks.
Additionally, other types of reduced-sized devices have provided a large set of reduced sized key buttons permitting entry of letters and other characters. Such devices have been used for wireless transmission and retrieval or emails. These devices commonly include an LCD display region. However, these devices suffer from many of the drawbacks present in the reduced-size keyboard regions of the controllers described above.